1 nun killed, three wounded as car hits tree

By Matters India Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 6, 2022: Sister Grace Mathew was killed and three other Daughters of Mary nuns were wounded in a road accident near Thiruvananthapuram, capital of Kerala, southern India.

The nuns were returning from Thrissur on February 5 after attending an official meeting when their car hit a tree near Pirappancode under Venjaramoodu police station limits, some 20 km north of Thiruvananthapuram. A priest who drove the car was also wounded.

Sister Mathew, 56, who was sitting in the passenger seat in the front, received severe head wounds and was taken immediately to a hospital, but the doctors could not save her life .

Sister Grace was the superior of their convent in Velloorkonam, a suburb of the state capital. She was also the Malankara Catholic Association unit animator.

Media reports quoted the Venjaramoodu police saying the accident occurred around 4:15 am near St John’s Hospital at Thycaud near Pirappancode.

Local people and passersby informed the police and they took the wounded to the hospital. However, Sister Mathew’s was body shifted to the morgue of the medical college hospital, police said.

The wounded — Sisters Anupama, Angel Mary and Lydia and Father Arun –were admitted to at KIMS Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.

The police said that Father Arun allegedly dozed off while driving and lost control of the car.

The Daughters of Mary, belonging to the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, was founded by Monsignor Joseph Kuzhinjalil, a priest of the Archdiocese of Changanacherry, with the blessings of the Servant of God and the Architect of the Reunion Movement Archbishop Mar Ivanios in Syro Malankara Catholic Church 1938 at Marthandam, Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu.

The primary mission of the congregation is to bring Good News to the poor and neglected, concentrating on families for their integrated development.